ORGANS OF THE DRONE. 203 



repose these parts are bent and flattened, but when 

 swollen they become hard and resistent, and take 

 the form of divergent horns, which, as they expand 

 in undergoing eversion, pass into and fill the bursa 

 copulatrix of the queen — a recess on both sides of 

 the vagina. If a drone (by preference, one caught 

 as he settles on the alighting-board, from his quest 

 on a fine summer day) be pressed between the 

 fingers, from the thorax towards the end of the 

 abdomen, his organs will be expelled, because the 

 air sacs are full, and the whole animal in an excited 

 condition. They will then, wholly or in part, assume 

 the form shown at E, and may be dried, attached to the 

 body, and kept for subsequent study. This experi- 

 ment will enable us to understand the manner and 

 order of the extraordinary changes that occur during 

 coition. Under excitement, indeed, the extrusion fre- 

 quently happens to the drone without any mechanical 

 squeezing, a sudden decapitation not unusually occa- 

 sioning it ; and dead drones, with the organs ex- 

 ternal, may constantly be found about the apiary in 

 the summer. 



The spermatophore, ovoid in form, gives, by in- 

 terior pressure, a bulbous shape to the upper part of 

 the organ, which lies loosely within its sheath in the 

 cavity of the abdomen, and adherent to the body at 

 the edges of the sexual orifice only. If a glove 

 have one of its fingers turned outside in, the latter 

 beine then filled with some semi-fluid matter, such 

 as paste, it may illustrate the action at the time of 

 the accouplement. The junction of the finger with 

 the hand of the glove will represent m, A (Fig. 41), 



